Mistletoe and Wine
by BuryTheHatchet
Summary: The gang as teenagers, continuing from my other one-shot, Chalk and Cheese. Have fun. I rated it T because I couldn't remember quite what I have written.


**My little Christmas present to you, like I promised before chapter 11 of 'It Takes Two'. This is sort of a follow on from my one-shot 'Chalk and Cheese', which you do not have to read, but I would recommend it for this one to make slightly more sense.**

Mistletoe and Wine

"Oh, my God. Tony!" Kate yelled as a balled up piece of work landed on her sketchbook, spinning round in her chair to face the offending party. "Do you have to be so annoying?"

"It's part of my charm." He grinned.

"What charm?" She laughed, shaking her head and turning back to her sketch.

"You know we're supposed to be working." He leaned forwards, watching her draw.

"I've completed the work." She sighed, holding a piece of paper up, moving it out of the way when Tony grabbed for it.

"Oh, Kate, please…Just a peek at the answers?" He looked at her.

"No, do it yourself." She said, ignoring him.

"DiNozzo, please refrain from copying other's work." Fornell said, walking down the row of tables and stopping next to Kate. "Todd, does this look like an art class?"

"No, sir. I've finished the work." She looked at him and smiled.

"Very well." He said, walking away.

"Why does he like you?" Tony hissed at her.

"Because." She smiled. "I do the work."

"I do the work." He shrugged. "I think he likes you."

"He's old and grumpy. You push his buttons." She shook her head.

"Why does he insist on calling us by our surnames?" He asked.

"I think it makes him feel like he has more power." Kate shrugged.

* * *

"Have you got it to work yet?" Abby asked as they sat in the canteen.

"No, you?" Tim said, not removing his eyes from the laptop screen in front of him as his fingers flew across the keys.

"Not quite." She said, her attention to her computer equal to his.

"I brought you an apple and a Caf-Pow each." Ziva placed a cup and fruit in front of each of them and sat down. "What are you working on?" She asked the Goth.

"A program to scan social media sites for anything actually interesting." Tim said, looking up and smiling. "Thanks for the apple." He took a bite.

"Hey, its McGeek and Abby!" Tony grinned as he sat down in another chair and kicked his feet up on the table.

"Tony, feet off the table." Kate said, sitting next to him and opening her bottle of water.

"I'm good thanks, mum." He leaned back and placed a stick of gum in his mouth.

"You're disgusting." Kate sighed and the rest of the teenagers laughed. "Hey, what are you wearing for the Christmas Dance?" Kate asked Ziva.

"I am not going." She shrugged and they all stared at her. "What? I do not celebrate Christmas."

"That doesn't mean you can't come along." Tony chucked a piece of gum into the bin. "Come on, it'll be fun."

"I would not know what to wear." Ziva looked around the table.

"A dress." They said in harmony.

"I do not know. I do not even have a date. I do not even own a dress." She sighed.

"Oh, I'm wearing a black steam-punk style dress with burgundy trims!" Abby grinned, momentarily distracted from her laptop.

"I've been looking at a blue dress, but I'm still not sure." She sighed.

"I like you in purple." Tony shrugged, placing his sunglasses over his eyes.

"Tony, I look awful in purple and you know it." Kate hit him.

"Who are you taking, Tony?" Ziva asked, watching him carefully.

"Well, Miss Cassidy is hot…" He grinned.

"Tony, she's your music teacher!" Tim looked at him.

"Yeah, but she is soooo…" He laughed, shaking his head as the rest of the table glared at him. "You just don't get it." He removed his glasses.

"Well, I am taking Abby." Tim said.

"Ooh, something you wish to tell us, Timmy?"

"No, Tony, we are going as friends." Abby smiled.

"Hey, er, Kate…" Jimmy walked up to the table; his acne covered face redder than anybody had ever seen it. "I…uh, was wondering…about the Christmas dance next month…well, if you're not going with anybody, I wanted to know if you would go with me?"

"Hey, gremlin, I'm gonna take Kate to the dance." Tony said, smiling at him.

"Oh, er, right… Um, Ziva, are you going with anybody?" Jimmy stuttered.

"Yeah, me." Tony said, looking up at the lanky boy standing next to him.

"I thought you said…?" Jimmy pointed to Kate and shook his head, confused, and walked away.

"Tony, that's not nice." Kate said.

"What? I saved you from having to break his heart." He shrugged.

"What if I wanted to go with him?" She asked.

"You wouldn't." Tony laughed. "Hey, where you going?" He asked as she stood up.

"To go and tell Jimmy that I'll go with him."

"Hah, you're kidding, right?"

"No, I think it was cute of him to ask."

"Cute? We are both still talking about Jimmy Palmer, aren't we?" He looked at her incredulously.

"Yes."

"But…it's Jimmy?"

* * *

"She turned me down." Tony sighed as he sat down next to Ziva on the bus.

"You actually asked her to the Christmas dance?" She laughed.

"Hey, you never know if you don't ask." He said.

"But she is your music teacher!" She laughed again.

"Ok, so maybe I made an error in judgement." He laughed with her.

"Is that what you call it?" She shook her head.

"So who do you want to go with?" Tony asked.

"I do not know." She shrugged, looking at the teenager.

"You're a really bad liar." He laughed. "Wait, is it McGee?"

"No, it is not McGee." She shook her head.

"Then who?"

"It does not matter, he is completely oblivious." She smiled, watching the world go past outside the window.

"You want me to talk to this guy?" The Italian asked.

"It will not do any good, but thank you for the offer Tony." She smiled, watching his reflection in the window. "It would not work, anyway."

"Why?"

"He is him and I am I." She sighed and scowled when he laughed. "What? What did I say wrong this time?"

"Everything. None of that made any sense."

"Well, it made sense to me." She shrugged, closing her eyes and grabbing Tony's wrist when his hand grew close to her face. "Not a good idea."

"How do you do that?" He asked seriously.

"How does a spider catch a fly?" She shrugged again.

"I'm not even gonna…" He shook his head and sighed exasperatedly. "I have a crazy idea."

"Oh, dear God."

"No, really, it's genius." He looked at his friend. "I was turned down and whoever this guy is who doesn't know about your secret little crush hasn't asked you to the dance."

"Why must you rub the salt into it?"

Tony ignored her pulverisation of the phase. "Why don't you and I go together?"

"What?" She jumped in her seat and looked at him, frowning.

"Well, neither of us have dates, lets just do what the McGook and Abbytron are doing and go as friends."

"I do not think my father would approve." Ziva said quietly.

"Because I'm not Jewish?"

"Because he gets very angry when I kill people." She flashed a grin.

"You've never killed any…Ok, point taken." He looked at her face. "What makes you so certain that you'll end up killing me?"

She ran her index finger down the side of his cheek, her cold finger grazing his skin. "Your face." She flicked his temple.

* * *

"Er, hi?" Tony said, opening his door to Ziva, who was dressed in jeans and a hoody. "I told you I would pick you up."

"And I told you my father was not to know that I am going to this dance." She walked past him into his house. "This is a nice place you have here. Big." She frowned at the large entrance hall.

"You are going to be wearing a dress, aren't you?"

"Yes." She held up the black dress cover. "Do you have somewhere I can change?"

"Er, sure. Upstairs and to the left, third door." He pointed to the grand staircase.

"Thank you." She nodded and began ascending the stairs. "Oh, Tony." She turned. "You look good."

"Who's that?" His father walked through, a martini in hand.

"A friend."

"A very beautiful friend." DiNozzo senior's eyes wandered to the spot where Ziva had walked away from.

"And that is why you have never met any of my friends, dad." Tony rolled his eyes, straightening his tux.

"Why are you so dressed up?"

"It's the Christmas dance, remember?" Tony shook his head.

"That's tonight? And she's your date?" He looked at his son, astonished. "Good job, Junior."

"She is a friend." He glared, jumping slightly at the sound of the bathroom door unlocking. "Wow." He and his father stared at Ziva as she stood at the top of the stairs. She wore a long green satin dress, the colour of fir trees. Her dark hair was pinned back with an emerald clip, loose curls cascading down to frame her face.

"Is this alright? I was not certain what I…"

"Ziva, it's really good." He nodded as she walked down the stairs to join her.

"Antony DiNozzo, the original." Tony's father kissed her hand. "A pleasure to meet you, miss…?"

"David." She smiled. "If you are the original, that would make Tony the sequel, yes?"

"More like the updated version." Tony winked at her, taking her hand from his fathers. "We should go, don't want to be late."

* * *

"Hey, you know that thing we were talking about?" Abby whispered to Tony as she walked over.

"Yeah, it's all sorted?" He whispered back. She slipped a glass test tube out of her bag and into Tony's hand. "And this will get the teacher's hammered?"

"Oh, yeah." Tim laughed, his arm looped through Abby's.

"Okay, Kate, you are least likely to be suspected, you should be the one to put it in the punch." He held the pure alcohol out to her.

"I don't think it's right. I don't feel comfortable doing it."

"Just think about the C Mr Vance gave you last month." Tony grinned, watching as the goody two-shoes caved. "Just say you want to get away from Jimmy for a bit, you'll mind the table."

"He does seem to be more interested in Michelle." Ziva watched Kate's date, frowning.

"I can't believe I'm about to do this." She sighed, taking the vile and shaking her head. "I'm gonna get into so much trouble."

"Aww, you can do it Kate. Just believe in yourself." Tony grinned as she poked her tongue out at him. "Hey, lets dance." He turned to Ziva, noticing that Tim and Abby had wandered off.

"I do not dance. I do not know how." She shook her head and swallowed.

"Now, that is something I do not believe. Come on, nothing to be afraid of." He took her hands and led her to the dance-floor, his grin widening when the song slowed in tempo.

"I do not dance." She repeated quietly.

"And I don't believe that." He shrugged, placing his hands on her waist and silently thanking his mother for putting him through all of those dreadful dance lessons when he was a child. "There, see…you can dance." He whispered in her ear. "You look stunning tonight, by the way." Ziva tilted her head back to look at his face, her smile fading into a more pained expression and she removed her hands from his shoulders. She backed away, shaking her head, before turning and running out of the school gym.

"What do you think Tony just said to make Ziva so upset?" Abby asked as she and McGee watched from afar, Tony dashing out seconds after his friend.

"Knowing Tony, almost anything inappropriate." Tim scoffed.

* * *

"How did you get up there so quickly?" Tony asked as he struggled to climb onto the roof of the two-story area of the school. "Are you ignoring me?" He groaned as he inched up ever closer to his goal, using the tough vines that grew up the wall as foot and hand holds. Her silence spoke volumes. "I'm not really sure what it is that I said, but what ever it was, I think this is unreasonable." He whined as he lost his grip and scrambled back to regain the few inches he lost. "Jesus Christ, Ziva." He pulled himself up over the edge, flinging his jacket over first. He watched her as she leaned her head back to look at the stars, her curls tumbling over her shoulders: she had taken her hair out of the emerald clip.

"I like the view from up here." She said, her first words to him.

"Yeah, it's not bad." He did not avert his eyes from her. Standing up cautiously, Tony edged his way over to her, slipping multiple times on uneven roofing tiles. "What is it that I said?" He asked as he sat next to her.

"I do not like people making fun of me." She whispered quietly.

"When did I make fun of you?" He frowned.

"I do not look good." She said quietly. "I do not like being so…dressed up."

"You may not like it, but you look good." He shrugged. "Really good."

"No, I do not. You are just saying that. You are making fun of me."

"Why would I do that?" He asked, confused.

"Because that is what you do. You make fun of people." She sat up and kicked her legs over the edge of the building.

"I don't mean to." He sighed and shook his head. "If it's any consolation, I think you look better than Kate." He reached up and then retracted his hand when she tilted her head towards him.

"The stars have nothing to do with it."

"What?"

"I do not believe the stars control us?"

"Nor do I."

"Then why are you talking about constellations?"

"I'm not."

"You are. You clearly said that if it is any constellation, I look…"

"No. I said consolation."

"Oh." She frowned, mentally taking a note of her error to utilize at a later date. Tony stared at her bare arms in the pale moonlight.

"It's chilly out here." He slipped his tailored jacket off and draped it over her shoulders.

"Thank you." She nodded.

"So, where does your father think you are?" Tony asked, laying back and looking at the stars.

"He believes I am at the gym, training." She sighed guiltily.

"For what?"

"Hand to hand combat."

"So that's how you know all that cool ninja stuff?" He propped him self on one elbow to look at her, still lounging on the roofing slates.

"Not ninja, but yes." She smiled slightly.

"So, tell me a bit about the David family." Tony asked. He had known her since she moved to America, yet he still knew little about her.

"I do not think you would want to know." She shook her head and looked at him.

"Oh, come on. You know about me and my father."

"It is not that simple, Tony." She shook her head sadly. "Not something I can talk about."

"You can do anything if you want." He shrugged, frowning when she stood up.

"No, Tony. You cannot." She balanced along the edge of the roof, not wobbling once as she stepped over his feet and walked to the natural ladder.

"You run away a lot, don't you?" He muttered, hurrying after her in not such an elegant way.

"Keep moving, Tony. One day, that piece of advice might just save your life." She hoped down the last little bit and landed neatly as Tony still struggled.

"Yeah? I kinda like 'still' sometimes. Ya'ever think of that, Ziva?" He winced as he fell the last few feet.

"Do you suppose they have missed us?" Ziva asked, slipping her arms through Tony's jacket.

"Oh, I doubt it." He looked at his watch. "But if we don't get back now and dispel the rumours that are about to develop, we are not going to be remembered for our brains at high school."

"To be remembered for our brains, one must have brains to begin with."

"What're you talking about, you're clever." Tony frowned at her.

"I was talking about you." She laughed as they walked back towards the sports hall.

"Hey, I have a brain." He protested.

"Yes, only it is not focused on algebra." She chuckled and shook her head.

"Oh, but it's interested in other kinds of bra." He grinned and she rolled her eyes, trying so very hard to stifle a laugh. "And I guess that is not what you want to be remembered for either."

"Why would people remember me for your brain?" She stopped as they crossed the playing field, puzzled.

"They would remember you for what you may or may not have being doing for half an hour with someone with a mind like mine. I apologise." He sighed, watching her face as she figured out what he was saying.

"It is not your fault. I am sure nobody will even say a word." She smiled slightly.

"Kids can be cruel, Ziva." He nodded towards the sports hall as they started heading back again. "They won't say anything to our faces, but they'll talk."

"I know, Tony." She leaned her head on his shoulder as he wrapped his arm around her waist.

* * *

"Thank you, Tony. For everything." Ziva nodded, back in her jeans and hoody.

"I enjoyed it. I found it…"

"Surreal." She finished.

"Nice." He said, simultaneously with her. They stood awkwardly on the doorstep, uncertain of what to do next. "How are you getting home?"

"I will catch a taxi." She nodded.

"Are you sure? I can take you home if you want."

"No it is fine. Besides, what will my father say when I am dropped off at home by, well, you, dressed in a tuxedo?"

"I don't think he'd mind."

"You do not know my father." She scoffed. "Thank you." She smiled again and began walking away. "Oh, and Tony." She stopped and turned around, just before he closed the door. "Have a good Christmas."

"Yeah, I'll see you when school starts again." He flicked a wave as she nodded and walked down the drive. Tony smiled slightly and closed the door to, heading up towards his room. He hung his suit up and, before pulling a pair of jogging bottoms and a t-shirt on, took a glance out of the window looking out onto the street. A form sat on the bench by the bus stop, illuminated by the streetlamp over her head. He smiled and exchanged the bottoms in his hand for a pair of jeans, tugging them on and stuffing his feet into a pair of shoes. He grabbed the keys off of the table in the hall and hurried out of the front door, jogging down the drive and out of the front gate. "No cabs?"

"No, I like watching the people on the bus." She shrugged. "I do not know when the next one will be here."

"5 AM tomorrow." He shrugged. "Last one came half an hour ago. I'll give you a ride home if you want."

"I am sure that I can find some method of transport, you do not need to go out of your way."

"Come on, I'm not arguing about this." He said, lifting her up with her forearm and steering her towards his father's garage. He unlocked the Porsche and held the door open for her as she raised her eyebrows.

"You have a Porsche?"

"My father has a Porsche, I just drive it sometimes." He smiled as he sat in the driver's seat and reversed onto the road.

* * *

"Abba, he was just a friend." Ziva said, biting her lip.

"You lied to me, Ziva!" He yelled. "You told me that you were going training, not to a party!" He tore into her.

"I am sorry!" She screamed back. "I am sorry, Abba."

"Not only did you lie to me, but you went with a boy who does not exactly maintain an impeccable reputation!"

"Tony is a good person. He is my friend." She said quietly. "Please, Abba. I am innocent."

"Of what? Lying, because you are most certainly not innocent of that. It makes me wonder what else you have lied to me about."

"Nothing, Abba. I promise." She shook her head, tears tumbling down her cheeks as her father began throwing items into suitcases. "We do not need to leave America. I like it here, I have friends."

"Ziva." The older man sighed. "If my memory serves me correctly, it was you who many years ago cried every night about going home to Israel."

"And now this is my home. I like it here."

"Then you should not have disobeyed me." He said, continuing with the packing. "We leave tomorrow morning, Ziva. Pack your things."

"Abba, no!"

"Do it now, Ziva. Do not argue." Her father stared at her as she stormed to her room.

* * *

Tony sat at his desk, watching the seconds tick by as they counted another minute that had passed without Ziva walking through the classroom door. His eyes flicked to the teacher as she walked over and placed a textbook on the table. "Miss Borin, I was wondering, where is Ziva?" He asked.

"Gone." She shrugged. "I heard her father took her back to Israel." Tony's smile faded and he looked down at the empty desk in front of him.

"Why?"

"Believe it had something to do with the Christmas party." She said. "You and she were close?"

"You could say that." He frowned. She raised her eyebrows.

"Anything like the rumours that have been spreading like wildfire?"

"No. She was just a friend." He shook his head. "A very good friend."

"I'm sorry." She sighed. "A good bit of history should cheer you up though. We're starting a topic on boats and the sea."

"I hate boats." He growled, slouching further into his chair. He stayed like that throughout history, throughout maths and chemistry. He slumped into a chair next to Abby at their usual lunch table. Everyone stared at him. They endured his silence as he picked at his food, not investing the usual vigour he would normally apply to the demolition of his lunch. They all jumped as he pushed his chair out and left.

"He seems heartbroken." Kate placed her bottle of water down once he was out of earshot.

"We all miss her." Abby sighed.

"Not a great way to start the new-year." Tim shook his head. "But why would he miss her so much than the rest of us?" The two girls raised their eyebrows at him. "It's Tony and Ziva. They promised that nothing happened."

"Yeah, but what if something did?" Abby said, persisting.

"No, Abby. If something had, he would have gloated for days." Tim shook his head again.

"But if we believe the rumours…" Kate suggested.

"No. Not Tony and Ziva."

"Well, why else would her father take her back to Israel all of a sudden?" Abby closed the lid to her laptop and slid it into her bag.

"You ever met the guy?" Tim shuddered, remembering the time he had been invited for dinner one time. "He's scary. I mean really scary."

"He can't be that bad?" Kate laughed.

"No, he was. He had the sort of face that you just didn't want to make upset."

"I'm sure that he just had to go back to Israel just because he had a new job or something. It probably has nothing to do with Tony." Abby shrugged, knowing that nobody believed her. She sighed and slurped at the Caf-Pow in her hand and watched as her friends as they all continued to eat their lunch, each thinking about what Ziva was doing at that moment, weather she was thinking of them at the moment. Maybe they would see her again, Abby thought, although the probability was very low.

 **For my reference: 4th NCIS** **fic.**


End file.
